Ed Sheeran recently gave an interview to British GQ, and in it he got super (super) candid about his obsession with success—and also touched on that of his BFF Taylor Swift.

“There’s an underdog element to it,” he said. “Taylor was never the popular kid in school. I was never the popular kid in school. Then you get to the point when you become the most popular kid in school—and we both take it a bit too far.”

Clearly, there’s nothing more admirable than a person with drive, but apparently these two are taking it to a whole new level.

“She wants to be the biggest female artist in the world and I want to be the biggest male artist in the world,” he said. “It also comes from always being told that you can’t do something and being like, ‘F–k you. I can.'”

In other news, the only thing standing between Sheeran and winning at life is Adele, and he plans to beat her at her own game.

“Adele is the one person who’s sold more records than me in the past ten years,” he said, later adding, “In a 100m sprint to get a No1 album I just know I’m going to win. I don’t care who’s doing what. I just know I’m going to win. I’m going to make sure I come first.”